Optimizing a website is important for any healthcare organization if the website is to be found by search engines. This is what a medical website marketing company can assist you with by providing effective SEO strategies for better traffic and ranking.Today more and more people use the internet to search for medical and healthcare related information before they actually make an appointment with a doctor or healthcare facility. You need to rank high in Google and other search engines to make sure that your targeted audience group finds you. So what does SEO for medical business involve? Here are some of the major strategies to use.
- Using the right keywords: Using apt keywords in your website will improve search ranking. Create a list of relevant keywords that people would use while looking for your services, and use them in your website. Once the list of keywords are ready, these keywords have to be searched in Google’s Keyword Planner to identify which keywords and phrases earn a decent amount of local monthly search traffic and have the least competition from other website owners or advertisers.
- Use the apt keywords in your meta descriptions and title tags: The chosen keywords should be included in the content on your website and also in the Metadata of each of the pages. The Metadata consists of HTML meta tags that lie between the open and closing head tags in the HTML code of a document. Meta data helps search engines to crawl through page and know what the page is about using the meta description, headers and title tags. The title tags act as the title of the page at the top of the browser and in the blue text in the search engine results. A title tag should not be more than 65 characters, and the meta description should not be longer than 150 characters and will appear in black text below the title tags. To further tell the search engines what the content of a page is all about, headers can be added throughout the content using h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 and h6 header tags.
- Develop original content: The content of your medical website should stand out among your online competitors, especially in the search engines. By providing quality content you can gain better ranking and also highlight your expertise and value over time. To drive more value and ranking to your website, publish contents such as case studies, blog posts, videos, photos, patient testimonials, medical breakthroughs, infographics, and conversations including relevant keywords. Identify the questions patients commonly ask and create a write-up that answers all these questions. This will add quality to your content and help earn more search traffic to your website. This will also improve the credibility of your organization.
- Include a sitemap on your website: Developing a sitemap for the website is often overlooked by webmasters but it is one of the important tactics for indexing the website with the search engines. The sitemap helps search engines have an idea about how your website is laid out and connected and also enables users to access your website easily. Creating a sitemap is not an easy task but can be achieved with the help of medical SEO services.
- Rank high for other search verticals: You need to rank highly for search related verticals such as videos, slideshows, local, mobile, images and others apart from ranking high for your website.
- Local search marketing: According to Yext, 50% of all local searches come through mobile devices so it is important to make your website mobile optimized.Local search optimization is also essential. Local is one of the important search verticals for healthcare organizations. This is because it helps patients to know about what services and expertise are available locally, and also find the nearest healthcare unit in their locality. The ultimate aim of every medical practice is to appear on the first page when a patient searches for medical practices in their locality. So, it is important to mention the name and address of your organization accurately and it should be updated in a timely manner on Google+, Local Page, Foursquare Page and on your website’s footer across the entire website. Updating and listing the contact information correctly will help Google to associate with the location of your organization. Since the Google+ Local Page is important for every medical website, make sure to monitor the reviews posted to your page to ensure they are not affecting your ranking. The amount of reviews impacts your ranking overtime and it is very crucial to stay ahead of incoming recommendations and monitor the impact.
- Utilize social media for better ranking: Social media is one of the best platforms for online marketing and better ranking. It helps in two way communication between the organization and users. Use of social media also helps in targeting a larger audience. If your website is shared across social media it can attract more audience. Social media’s impact is a kind of link building and so quality content is also important so that it can be shared across social channels. Focusing on the quality of the content helps in earning more traffic and better ranking.
Medical SEO involves a series of tactics aimed at increasing your website’s visibility in search engine results so that there is an improved likelihood of being found when patients are searching for the treatments and services your healthcare unit offers. A medical website marketing company would utilize SEO and social media optimization tactics to increase targeted traffic to your website and ensure more conversions.
